Losing weight is a common goal, but navigating the vast amount of information available can be overwhelming. Much of what's recommended isn't based on science. However, several natural methods have been proven to work. This article explores various weight loss tools and techniques, offering a science-backed approach to achieving a healthy weight.
Natural Methods for Weight Loss
Several natural methods can promote weight loss. Eating fewer processed foods, drinking more green tea, and taking probiotics are examples. The speed at which weight loss occurs may vary by method.
Dietary Strategies
Diet plays a crucial role in weight management. Here are some effective dietary strategies:
Prioritize Whole, Single-Ingredient Foods
Basing your diet on whole, single-ingredient foods is one of the best things you can do to become healthier. By doing this, you eliminate the vast majority of added sugar, added fat, and processed food. Most whole foods are naturally very filling, making it a lot easier to keep within typical calorie limits. Eating whole foods also provides your body with the many essential nutrients that it needs to function properly. Weight loss often follows as a natural side effect of eating whole foods.
Limit Processed Foods
Processed foods are usually high in added sugars, added fats, and calories and are engineered to make you eat as much as possible. They’re much more likely to cause addictive-like eating than unprocessed foods.
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Stock Up on Nutritious Foods and Snacks
Studies have shown that the food you keep at home greatly affects weight and eating behavior. By always having nutrient-dense food available, you reduce the chances of you or other family members eating less nutritious items. There are also many nutritious snacks that are easy to prepare and take with you on the go. These include yogurt, whole fruit, nuts, carrots, and hard-boiled eggs.
Limit Added Sugar
Eating a lot of added sugar is linked with some of the world’s leading diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. On average, Americans eat about 17 teaspoons of added sugar each day. This amount is usually hidden in various processed foods, so you may be consuming a lot of sugar without even realizing it. Since sugar goes by many names in ingredient lists, it can be very difficult to figure out how much sugar a product actually contains. Minimizing your intake of added sugar is a great way to improve your diet.
Drink Water
There’s actually truth to the claim that drinking water can help with weight loss. Water is particularly helpful for weight loss when it replaces other beverages that are high in calories and sugar.
Drink Coffee and Green Tea
Coffee is loaded with antioxidants and other beneficial compounds. Black coffee is very weight loss friendly, since it can make you feel full but contains almost no calories. Green tea is a natural beverage that’s loaded with antioxidants. Drinking green tea is linked with many benefits, such as increased fat burning and weight management. Matcha tea is a variety of powdered green tea that may have even more powerful health benefits than regular green tea.
Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are extremely nutritious, weight-loss-friendly foods. In addition to being high in water, nutrients, and fiber, they usually have very low energy density. This makes it possible to eat large servings without consuming excess calories.
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Limit Refined Carbs
Refined carbs are carbs that have had most of their beneficial nutrients and fiber removed. The refining process leaves nothing but easily digested carbs, which may increase the risk of overeating and disease. The main dietary sources of refined carbs are white flour, white bread, white rice, sodas, pastries, snacks, sweets, pasta, breakfast cereals, and added sugar.
Add Protein to Your Diet
When it comes to weight loss, protein is the king of nutrients. A high-protein diet can also make you feel more full and reduce your appetite. In fact, some studies show that people eat fewer calories per day on a high-protein diet. Most people get enough protein from diet alone. However, for those who don’t, taking a whey protein supplement is an effective way to boost protein intake. Just make sure to read the ingredients list, because some varieties are loaded with sugar and other additives.
Eat More Fiber
Fiber-rich foods may help with weight loss. Foods that contain water-soluble fiber may be especially helpful, since this type of fiber can help increase the feeling of fullness. Fiber may delay stomach emptying and promote the release of satiety hormones. This can help you eat less without having to think about it. Many types of fiber can feed the friendly gut bacteria. Healthy gut bacteria have been linked with a reduced risk of obesity. Just make sure to increase your fiber intake gradually to avoid abdominal discomfort, such as bloating, cramps, and diarrhea.
Spice Up Your Meals
Capsaicin may also reduce appetite and calorie intake.
Consider Probiotics
Studies have shown that people who are overweight and people who have obesity tend to have different gut bacteria than those who do not, which may influence weight.
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Explore Different Diets
There is no single diet that nutritionists have deemed "the healthiest." However, there are several styles of eating that experts either have designed for optimal health or have observed to be healthy when consumed traditionally by different people around the world.
Mediterranean Diet: The Mediterranean-style diet gets its name from the foods available to various cultures located around the Mediterranean Sea. It heavily emphasizes minimally processed fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains. It contains moderate amounts of yogurt, cheese, poultry, and fish. Olive oil is its primary cooking fat. Red meat and foods with added sugars are only eaten sparingly.
DASH Diet: Experts developed the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) specifically as a heart-healthy regimen. The combination of food types contained in the diet seem to work together especially effectively to lower blood pressure and decrease risk of heart failure. The key features of DASH are low cholesterol and saturated fats; lots of magnesium, calcium, fiber, and potassium; and little to no red meat and sugar.
MIND Diet: As its name implies, the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) was designed by doctors to take elements from the Mediterranean and DASH diets that seemed to provide benefits to brain health and stave off dementia and cognitive decline.
Nordic Diet: In recent years, the Nordic diet has emerged as both a weight-loss and health-maintenance diet. Based on Scandinavian eating patterns, the Nordic diet is heavy on fish, apples, pears, whole grains such as rye and oats, and cold-climate vegetables including cabbage, carrots, and cauliflower.
Paleo Diet: The Paleolithic (Paleo) diet is also known as the hunter-gatherer diet, caveman diet, primal diet, or Stone Age diet; all these diets suggest that our bodies have not evolved to handle highly processed foods. This diet follows the nutritional patterns of early humans who lived in the Paleolithic era, which began more than 2 million years ago and continued until about 10,000 years ago, when humans started to cultivate plants and domesticate animals. Estimates are that our ancestors took in 35% of their calories from fat, 35% as carbohydrates (mostly fruits and vegetables), and 30% from protein. This diet advises consuming lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, and nuts while avoiding grains, dairy products, processed foods, and added sugar and salt.
Vegetarian Diet: There are many reasons to adopt a vegetarian diet for health. These diets can lower the risk of ischemic heart disease, T2DM, and cancer. Vegetarian diets can reduce blood pressure, lipid profiles, and inflammatory biomarkers and improve glycemic control and other cardiometabolic risk factors. This diet excludes meat, fish, and poultry, but there are many variations of the diet, including lactovegetarians and lacto-ovo-vegetarians.
Portfolio Diet: The Portfolio diet is a vegan plan that emphasizes a “portfolio” of foods or food components that lower cholesterol. When these foods are eaten together as part of a healthy diet, they presumably lower LDL-C better than any one of the portfolio foods could alone. To include a portfolio of cholesterol-lowering foods, the diet recommends daily consumption of 2 g of plant sterols, 50 g of nuts, 10-25 g of soluble fibers from plant foods, and 50 g of soy protein; meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, and eggs are not allowed.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. Generally, these methods make you eat fewer calories overall, without having to consciously restrict calories during the eating periods. This may lead to weight loss. However, long term effects still need to be researched. Intermittent fasting involves regular periods with no or very limited calorie intake. Intermittent fasting focuses on the time window of eating instead of calorie calculations or macronutrient composition, helping people to restrict food intake without having to count calories and to avoid late-night snacking.
Low-Carb Diets
Many studies have shown that low-carb diets are effective for weight loss. Limiting carbs and eating more fat and protein reduces your appetite and helps you eat fewer calories. Further, a low-carb diet may be more effective at reducing body weight than a low-fat diet. It can also improve risk factors for some diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. However, more research is needed to assess long term effects. With carbohydrate intake <10% (or <20-50 g/day), nutritional ketosis can occur; this type of diet is called a ketogenic diet. Ketogenic diet can suppress hunger during calorie restriction and may have some therapeutic effects on T2DM, polycystic ovary syndrome, and cardiovascular and neurological diseases.
Meal Replacements
Meal replacements include not only products marketed as soups, shakes, and bars, but also portion-controlled, ready-made meals. Meal replacements are used instead of “normal” food for one or more meals to reduce the daily calorie intake.
Lifestyle Adjustments
Beyond diet, lifestyle adjustments can significantly contribute to weight loss:
Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep is incredibly important for weight loss, as well as to prevent future weight gain. Studies have shown that sleep deprivation is linked to increased food intake, particularly in foods that are high in carbohydrates and fats.
Do Cardio
Doing cardio - whether it’s jogging, running, cycling, power walking, or hiking - is a great way to burn calories and improve both mental and physical health. Cardio has been shown to improve risk factors for heart disease. Even lower intensity cardio can help reduce body weight. Cardio seems to be particularly effective at reducing the fat that builds up around your organs and causes metabolic disease.
Add Resistance Exercises
Move more - resistance training with weights is an excellent exercise to help you lose weight
Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is a method used to increase awareness while eating. It helps you make conscious food choices and develop awareness of your hunger and satiety cues. It then helps you eat well in response to those cues.
Brush Your Teeth After Meals
Dental hygiene products can temporarily affect the taste of food and beverages, which may help limit the desire to snack or eat between meals.
Overcome Food Addiction
Food addiction involves overpowering cravings and changes in your brain chemistry that make it harder to resist eating certain foods. This is a major cause of overeating for many people, and affects a significant percentage of the population. In fact, it is estimated that almost 20% of people fulfilled the criteria for food addiction. Some foods are much more likely to cause symptoms of addiction than others. This includes highly processed junk foods that are high in sugar, fat, or both.
Count Calories (Occasionally)
Being aware of what you’re eating is very helpful when trying to lose weight. Using an app or another electronic tool may also be beneficial. Studies show that writing down what you eat is an effective method for weight loss. It raises awareness and forces you to think about what and how much you’re eating.
Use Smaller Plates
Using smaller plates may help you eat less, as it changes how you see portion sizes. However, more research is needed. In the same vein, using plates intended for portion control may reduce how much food you put on your plate, and thus how much you end up eating.
Eat More Slowly
If you eat too fast, you may eat more calories than your body needs before your body even realizes that you’re full. Chewing more slowly may help you eat fewer calories and increase the production of hormones that are linked to weight loss.
The Importance of a Sustainable Lifestyle Change
Dieting is one of those things that almost always fails in the long term. In fact, people who “diet” tend to gain more weight over time. Instead of focusing only on losing weight, make it a primary goal to nourish your body with nutritious food and daily movement. Long-term weight loss takes time and effort. So be sure that you're ready to eat healthy foods and become more active. It's not enough to eat healthy foods and exercise for just a few weeks or months. To keep off extra weight, you should make these healthy changes a way of life. The best diet for weight management is one that can be maintained in the long term.
Setting Goals and Tracking Progress
- It's important to set a realistic weight goal and timeline to achieve it.
- Find a meal pattern that includes healthy foods that you enjoy eating. Both the Mediterranean diet and DASH meal plan include whole grains, vegetables, fruits, lean protein, and some dairy products.
- Managing portions of all foods allows you to include foods you enjoy in moderation.
- Set a goal of at least 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week.
- Keeping track of food intake and physical activity is a proven tool for managing weight. Tracking helps to increase awareness of our eating and physical activity behaviors.
Tracking where you are now helps to identify how you want to improve your health. You can start by tracking your nutrition, physical activity, and sleep. Include everything you consume for a few days in a food and beverage diary. Include the hours of sleep you get. Other wellness factors you can track include how you are feeling when you eat and drink and are active, and lifestyle challenges. Set short-term goals and reward your efforts along the way. Focus on two or three goals at a time. Effective goals are specific and realistic. Remember, occasional setbacks happen. This is expected. When they happen, get back on track as quickly as possible. Evaluate your progress regularly by revisiting your goals. Decide which parts of your plan are working well and which parts need to be changed. Reward yourself for your achievements! Recognize when you're meeting your goals and be proud of your progress. Use non-food rewards, such as a bouquet of fresh flowers, a sports outing with friends, or a relaxing bath.
Seeking Support and Resources
Identify family members or friends who will support your weight loss efforts. Coworkers or neighbors with similar goals might share healthy recipes and plan group physical activities. It may help to join a weight-loss program or visit a health care professional, such as a nutrition or weight-loss specialist. You can also ask your health care provider for resources to support a healthy weight. Establishing healthy habits are very difficult when healthy choices are limited. Consider looking up your local community resources, such as food pantries, farmers markets, parks and recreation, and trails. Resources for food assistance in everyday situations, as well as before, during, and after emergencies and disasters.
Common Misconceptions and Realistic Expectations
Hundreds of fad diets, weight-loss programs and outright scams promise quick and easy weight loss. But the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to make lasting lifestyle changes. Aim to lose 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilogram) a week over the long term. Losing 5% of your current weight may be a good goal to start with.
Doctors recommend a weight loss of no more than 1-2 pounds per week, so losing 20 pounds in one month is not a health goal and may be harmful, especially if you have any chronic health conditions. Doctors recommend a weight loss of no more than 1-2 pounds per week. Trying to lose 10 pounds in one week may be harmful to you, especially if you have any chronic health conditions. Creating a long-term plan for reaching healthy diet and fitness goals may be a more effective way to reach your desired weight.
The Role of Healthcare Professionals
If you're concerned about your weight or have questions about your medications, talk with your health care provider. Consider why you want to lose weight, whether it's because heart disease runs in your family or you want to be more physically active. If you are not at a healthy weight, even modest weight loss can help improve your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels.
The Problem of Obesity in America
It's no secret that America has a weight problem. According to the CDC, nearly three-fourths of us are overweight or obese. Yet more than 160 million Americans are on a diet at any given time, and we drop more than $70 billion each year on commercial weight-loss plans, supplements, and other pound-shedding measures. That suggests that losing weight is not easy - yet it is entirely possible when done right.
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